To see the world with an undimmed Eye is heartbreaking. I was told from my infancy that the Earth was shadowed, and I have felt that shadow myself, drawing away my strength. But now I descend from heaven and immediately I am lost in a miasma of selfishness and greed and hatred, built up over millennia and sustained even now. Is it any wonder that we cannot stay in this occupied territory for long? How it is polluted, my friends!
Also heartbreaking is the way that I have changed in the eyes of my siblings. Inca, though she knew what had happened, felt a spark of fear in her heart when she first saw me, and Sabasa jumped and nearly fled when she came to visit me. Even Brid went still under my gaze, though she immediately swept me into her arms afterwards.
Salathiel was right to warn me that this would be a great and terrible change.
But there are benefits, as well. The gift of the Eye has changed how I see good things, as well, for they burn all the brighter in the darkness that surrounds them. Freya’s aura nearly blinded me when I returned to her. And her spirit, at least, welcomed me with no fear at all. Why should she be afraid? The trace of darkness that I carry within me now is nothing to the darkness in which she has lived all of her life.
I am more determined than ever to protect her. And I will need to. If the enemy knows of me, then they will know that Freya is my weakness. They will come for her. And I will be ready.
There has been no trace of trouble yet, though. I have seen no sign of any Fallen anywhere near Freya, nor even around Alysse. The tension between the two of them is dissolving; Alysse, stunned in her spirit by something that she can’t explain, has been subdued, and Freya can tell that something has changed for the better. Neither side is quite ready to be friends, but the malice is gone. I mean to be sure it stays gone.
This is a hard adjustment to make, but I am making it, and soon there will be new work for me to do.